The People’s Republic of China is the largest country in East Asia with a population of over 1.3 billion. It is growing at a radical speed economically and with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games beginning on August 8, China is truly the “emerging superpower” of the world. With over 5,000 years of historical heritage, China possesses a rich and colorful culture. The food, art, and literature of China has countless characteristics depending on geographical background and in terms of cinema, the Chinese movie market has recently been making great progress and is receiving vast amounts of international acclaim. Chinese cinema is renowned for its wide variety of genres, including Kung Fu action flicks and on the other hand, artistic movies portraying the inner beauty of China. China, as the powerhouse of Asia, is the center of attention worldwide.

Huang Ying

Huang Ying

Huang Ying, the director who was granted the Grand Prix award for the 4th CON-CAN Movie Festival, currently resides in Beijing, China and is a Professor at the Beijing Film Academy. The Beijing Film Academy is the largest institution specializing in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia. She enjoys teaching the talented students and actually obtains many inspirational ideas for movie scripts through the teaching process.
On her free time, she visits the movie theater to catch the latest flicks and also the local drama theater to enjoy recent artistic performances. Moreover, during the summer season, she has long walks through the park and on the beach not only for relaxation purposes, but to ponder themes for upcoming movies. Interestingly enough, the idea for her award winning movie “The Pond” popped into her head when she noticed a beautiful lotus flower floating on the surface of a pond at a local park. After this discovery, she started visiting the pond multiple times to capture the various expressions of the lotus flower in detail which is well portrayed in her movie.

Beijing Opera/Yellow Crab Tofu

Culture/Food

Beijing, as the capital of China, is the center of movie production for China and hence hosts many movie-related events. For instance, the Beijing Film Production Company located right next to the Beijing Film Academy, has daily updates concerning cast auditions and other openings. Furthermore, multiple movie festivals take part in Beijing, such as the Beijing Student Film Festival and Beijing International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. In addition to cinema, Beijing is famous for its traditional opera. Commonly lauded as one of the highest achievements of Chinese culture, Beijing Opera is performed through a combination of song, spoken dialogue, and codified action sequences, including gestures, fighting movements and acrobatics.
Beijing, as the heart of China, is famous for serving a variety of Chinese cuisine and has many gourmet restaurants that serve the regional favorites. Among the wide range of Chinese cuisine, Huang especially enjoys the cuisine from the Shanghai region. Her particular favorite is a dish consisting of silky tofu covered in a creamy and rich crabmeat gravy (a.k.a Yellow Crab Tofu). She mentions that the dish is not only healthy and nutritious but also has a heavenly flavor and once placed in the mouth, the tofu melts away like premium ice cream.